Vlad the Impaler

Vlad
the Impaler was well known for the punishment that he adopted, the impalement,
this is the reason why he was named Tepes, which means The Impaler. The method
of impaling criminals and enemies and raising them aloft in the town square for
all to see is associated with his ruthless image. Almost any crime, from lying
and stealing to killing, could be punished by impalement.

Vlad the Impaler used various means of torturing including,
cutting of limbs, blinding, strangulation, burning, cutting off noses and ears,
mutilation of sexual organs, scalping, skinning, exposure to the elements or to
wild animals and boiling alive. Death by impalement was slow and painful.
Victims sometimes endured for hours or days. Vlad the Impaler often had the
stakes arranged in various geometric patterns. The most common pattern was a
ring of concentric circles in the outskirts of the city that was his target. The
height of the spear indicated the rank of the victim. The decaying corpses were
often left up for months.

Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler) was the second sun
of another Wallachia Voivode, Vlad Dracul (1436-1442, 1443-1447) and Mircea the
Old’s grandson. He was the Voivode of Wallachia for three times: in the autumn
of 1448, between 1456 and1462, and in November – December 1476. Between 1442 and
1448, the Ottomans, on the custom of those times, kept him prisoner. The voivode
on the throne had to send one of his sons in Constantinople as a warranty for
his obedience. For a while, he was exiled in Moldavia and Transylvania
(1449-1456), waiting for the best moment to take over the throne of Wallachia.
He was related with the Voivode of Moldavia, Steven the Great, who was his
cousin. When he left the throne in 1462, Tepes was caught and imprisoned in
Buda, on the King of Hungary Mathias Corvin order, until 1475. His last reign in
Wallachia was short, the boyars preparing a coup against him. He was 45 years
old when he died killed by Turks with the help of the boyars and the future
Voivode Basarab Laiota.